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| The Tower Forests; The forests of 500 million years in the future | |
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| Topic Started: Dec 16 2016, 08:05 PM (3,336 Views) | |
| Salpfish | Dec 16 2016, 08:05 PM Post #1 |
Zygote
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After a great extinction event 300 million years in the future, all forests are completely wiped out, with any exposed plants being fried by a gamma ray burst. These bursts have passed many times through our solar system, but they never really did any damage until now, when one passed right through Earth. All terrestrial animals were killed. This meant that the only chordates to survive would be bats, living in sealed caves and only getting out into the open many million years later. Meanwhile, as there were no chordates, a descendant of brittlestars crawled onto land and took over around half of the niches by 500 million years in the future. The rest of the niches were taken by mostly insects and mollusks. Now, at 500 million years in the future, life is more diverse than ever. Fungi are common, and a new type of lichen has emerged: a symbiosis of fungi and plants instead of with fungi and algae. These new lichens have now grown into towering trees, often 150m tall. All algae-fungus lichens died in the gamma ray burst, as they grow only on places exposed to the sun. http://salpfish1.deviantart.com/art/Tower-Forests-637460849 Among the lichen tree's canopy lives a descendant of the ant lasius claviger, which now looks more like a centipede than anything alive today. It is called orthoformica isomera, and spins many giant sheet webs between the lichen trees. The lichen trees started taking advantage of these webs, using them to support their branches. Now, the canopies of these forests are completely supported by their webs. Sometimes, there can be up to 7 layers of canopy. The top one is always thin, as there are few trees to support them. The one underneath is the main canopy, which has the support to bear lots of weight, while accessing large amounts of light from the sun. Underneath is a moss canopy, a thick layer which is not penetrable by light and is covered with mossy plants and broadleaved plant-lichens. Anything beneath this is considered a fungus canopy, as only fungi can grow there. These contain extremely rich soil as a product of the decomposition above. http://salpfish1.deviantart.com/art/Orthoformica-isomera-638623121 There is a diverse ecosystem in these canopies, full of echinoderms, mollusks, insects, and chordates. There are even some motile plants, a result of the fierce competition between individuals for light. Some near-sapient echinoderms have also emerged from these canopies, capable of making basic tools like snares and pointed sticks. http://salpfish1.deviantart.com/art/Stitchsnake-648037211 Motile plant: http://salpfish1.deviantart.com/art/Squidseed-645491607 Bat descendant: http://salpfish1.deviantart.com/art/Dactylopoda-638814619 |
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| IIGSY | Apr 25 2017, 05:21 PM Post #31 |
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
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Is there mites in the tower forests? |
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Projects Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates Last one crawling: The last arthropod ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess) Potential ideas- Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized. Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal. Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents. Quotes Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups In honor of the greatest clade of all time More pictures Other cool things All African countries can fit into Brazil
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| Salpfish | Aug 6 2017, 02:58 PM Post #32 |
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Zygote
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http://salpfish1.deviantart.com/art/Moss-Canopy-686267341 The moss canopy is a layer of the tower forest that does not have enough light penetrating through to allow for the lush vegetation found above it, much like the forest floor in today's rainforests. It is a world of mossy growths, areal roots, and completely alien fauna. Some plants have evolved to start their growth in the upper layers of the forest, with dangling areal roots that, like today's strangler figs, eventually reach the ground and grow into a full-sized tree. Unlike strangler figs, though, they do not wrap around other trees for support, only using the ant webs to hold themselves up. Eventually, they will be able to support themselves without the ant webs. Perhaps the most odd-looking creature in this picture is the floating squid. Without any flying animals after the extinction event, deep-sea squid quickly rose to the surface and took the place of most mantis shrimp descendants (which replaced fish earlier on) and eventually took to the air. Predators, filter feeders, and even a few reef builders emerged, all descended from squid. About 100 million years before this scene, the first squid emerged from the water. They were a species that slowly drifted through the ocean using waste gases stored in their upper mantle cavity, and it only took an enlargement of this area to let them float on air. Now, this species drifts through the moss canopies, feeding on the mossy vegetation (actually a descendant of grass), picking it with their longer tentacles. The three insects in the background are fly descendants. During the extinction event, a fly species lived in caves, and thrived without much competition. Their wings beat alternately as they scan the ground for small animals to eat. To capture their prey, they stab through their shell and pump digestive juices into them using a jointed proboscis, drinking their liquefied remains after a few minutes. The holes are caused by a buildup of soil, causing the ant webs to collapse. Most of the time, the soil continues to fall through every layer of the forest, taking more with it as it goes. Sometimes, the lower layers can handle the falling clump of soil, and it remains there (at least for a few days). The crater-shaped holes are made by animals, allowing them to cross up and down through them. |
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| Inceptis | Aug 6 2017, 04:03 PM Post #33 |
In-tro-vertebrate
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Um, if it has more than two wings, it's not a true fly. Really like the floating squid, though. |
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This was getting fairly big. Spoiler: click to toggle
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| IIGSY | Aug 6 2017, 04:09 PM Post #34 |
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A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
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Maybe the halteres redeveloped into functional wings? |
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Projects Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates Last one crawling: The last arthropod ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess) Potential ideas- Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized. Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal. Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents. Quotes Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups In honor of the greatest clade of all time More pictures Other cool things All African countries can fit into Brazil
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| Inceptis | Aug 6 2017, 04:26 PM Post #35 |
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In-tro-vertebrate
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That seems reasonable, given that they're predatory and would likely have to carry heavy carcasses, which would require more lift than two insect wings can likely provide. I'm thinking something along the lines of Meganisoptera. |
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This was getting fairly big. Spoiler: click to toggle
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| Salpfish | Aug 7 2017, 08:03 PM Post #36 |
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Zygote
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Yes, that was the idea. The halteres would be used in flight and develop into full-sized wings. |
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